Hi there Russ, I read over your discography of work and noticed you worked on commons "like water for chocolate". This being my favorite Common album as well as my favorite work of the late Jay Dee, I was wondering if you had any interactions with this brilliant man that you would like to share as well as any techniques he used that stood out to you. Thanks.

Hi there Russ, I read over your discography of work and noticed you worked on commons "like water for chocolate". This being my favorite Common album as well as my favorite work of the late Jay Dee, I was wondering if you had any interactions with this brilliant man that you would like to share as well as any techniques he used that stood out to you. Thanks.

hello,

R.I.P Jay Dilla!
wow what a major loss for us! i rememeber first hearing about Jay Dilla when D came in one day and he was all excited about this cassette Dilla gave to him. he had spoken about him before but i hadn't met him yet. the casssette (back then, CDR had not made it's way to many studios or homes) was The "Slum Village" demos, his original demos. i flipped out when i heard it. it was like he was doing exactly what we were doing, but on the hip hop side. D and Dilla were the same but each leaning on the opposite side.

i remember he had a vibe about him that was just positive and humble. he would always tell me how good i made things sound and we had many conversations about techniques, music, life... he was very inquisitive and asked me lots of questions about engineering. he just absorbed everything we did on the voodoo and common sessions. and he could pick up any instrument and get something happening with it.

a lot of the stuff we recorded were beats that Dilla came in with and we just recreated it and rearrangend them with live instruments. he had amazing skills on the mpc and would just come up with crazy things. he could make like 3 crazy beats in one hour. i don't really have anything i could tell you of any techniques that dilla used...sorry. he just did his thing and and it just sounded good, a natural!

ps: i mixed the song "can't stop this" on the roots "game theory" album. i mixed part ll of the song that's a big tribute to Dilla. ahmir had everyone leave messages on his voicemail and he sampled different excerpts from those voicemails and we inserted them in various parts of that section. it's pretty trippy...

R.I.P Jay Dilla!
wow what a major loss for us! i rememeber first hearing about Jay Dilla when D came in one day and he was all excited about this cassette Dilla gave to him. he had spoken about him before but i hadn't met him yet. the casssette (back then, CDR had not made it's way to many studios or homes) was The "Slum Village" demos, his original demos. i flipped out when i heard it. it was like he was doing exactly what we were doing, but on the hip hop side. D and Dilla were the same but each leaning on the opposite side.

i remember he had a vibe about him that was just positive and humble. he waould always tell me how good i made things sound and we had many conversations about techniques, music, life... he was very inquisitive and asked me lots of questions about engineering. he just absorbed everything we did on the the voodoo and common sessions. and he could pick up any instrument and get something happening with it.

a lot of the stuff we recorded were beats that Dilla came in with and we just recreated it and rearrangend them with live instruments. he had amazing skills on the mpc and would just come up with crazy things. he could make like 3 crazy beats in like one hour. i don't really have anecdotes of techniques that dilla used...sorry. he just did his thing and and it just sound good, a natural!

ps: i mixed the song "can't stop this" on the roots "game theory" album. i mixed part ll of the song that's a big tribute to Dilla. ahmir had everyone leave messages on his voicemail and he sampled different excerpts from those voicemails and we inserted them in various parts of that section. it's pretty trippy...

thanks for remembering dilla

Thanks for sharing thats with us. Dilla R.I.P, such a brilliant artist and yet so little is really known about him, so to hear stories about him from people who have met him is really cool. Thanks.

ps: i mixed the song "can't stop this" on the roots "game theory" album. i mixed part ll of the song that's a big tribute to Dilla. ahmir had everyone leave messages on his voicemail and he sampled different excerpts from those voicemails and we inserted them in various parts of that section. it's pretty trippy...

thanks for remembering dilla

yeah really RIP J DILLA.. great loss in hiphop. just wanted to say I love that song and how it sounds.. I really like your work, russ, keep on doing your thing!!

FYI:
for all the dilla, common and d'angelo fans out there.
i just finished a mix last night that was a Dilla beat for common's album with d'angelo as featured vocalist. JAY DILLA LIVES...
and common is in the studio as we speak finishing up overdubs for his album. he told me he's in the studio with james poyser and jeff lee johnson.
for anyone who doesn't know jeff lee, he's one of the baddest guitar players around and toured with D for voodoo.

FYI:
for all the dilla, common and d'angelo fans out there.
i just finished a mix last night that was a Dilla beat for common's album with d'angelo as featured vocalist. JAY DILLA LIVES...
and common is in the studio as we speak finishing up overdubs for his album. he told me he's in the studio with james poyser and jeff lee johnson.
for anyone who doesn't know jeff lee, he's one of the baddest guitar players around and toured with D for voodoo.

FYI:
for all the dilla, common and d'angelo fans out there.
i just finished a mix last night that was a Dilla beat for common's album with d'angelo as featured vocalist. JAY DILLA LIVES...
and common is in the studio as we speak finishing up overdubs for his album. he told me he's in the studio with james poyser and jeff lee johnson.
for anyone who doesn't know jeff lee, he's one of the baddest guitar players around and toured with D for voodoo.

all the best

Hi Russ,

Was it "So Far To Go"??

This was on Dilla's last album the Shining and has common and D'angelo on it.

I read that Common was going to put it on his album also.
The one on Dilla's album was mixed by Dave Cooley, is the one on Commons album a different version?

a lot of the stuff we recorded were beats that Dilla came in with and we just recreated it and rearrangend them with live instruments. he had amazing skills on the mpc and would just come up with crazy things. he could make like 3 crazy beats in one hour. i don't really have anything i could tell you of any techniques that dilla used...sorry. he just did his thing and and it just sounded good, a natural!